Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson [738]
“And then wouldn’t have had the courage or motivation to overthrow the Final Empire.”
“And is what we have any better?” Elend asked. “The longer I’ve held this throne, Vin, the more I’ve come to realize that some of the things the Lord Ruler did weren’t evil, but simply effective. Right or wrong, he maintained order in his kingdom.”
Vin looked up, catching his eyes, forcing him to look down at her. “I don’t like this hardness in you, Elend.”
He looked out over the blackened canal waters. “It doesn’t control me, Vin. I don’t agree with most of the things the Lord Ruler did. I’m just coming to understand him—and that understanding worries me.” She saw questions in his eyes, but also strengths. He looked down and met her eyes. “I can hold this throne only because I know that at one point, I was willing to give it up in the name of what was right. If I ever lose that, Vin, you need to tell me. All right?”
Vin nodded.
Elend looked back at the horizon again. What is it he hopes to see? Vin thought.
“There has to be a balance, Vin,” he said. “Somehow, we’ll find it. The balance between whom we wish to be and whom we need to be.” He sighed. “But for now,” he said, nodding to the side, “we simply have to be satisfied with who we are.”
Vin glanced to the side as a small courier skiff from one of the other narrowboats pulled up alongside theirs. A man in simple brown robes stood upon it. He wore large spectacles, as if attempting to obscure the intricate Ministry tattoos around his eyes, and he was smiling happily.
Vin smiled herself. Once, she had thought that a happy obligator was always a bad sign. That was before she’d known Noorden. Even during the days of the Lord Ruler, the contented scholar had probably lived most of his life in his own little world. He provided a strange proof that even in the confines of what had once been—in her opinion—the most evil organization in the empire, one could find good men.
“Your Excellency,” Noorden said, stepping off of the skiff and bowing. A couple of assistant scribes joined him on the deck, lugging books and ledgers.
“Noorden,” Elend said, joining the man on the foredeck. Vin followed. “You have done the counts I asked?”
“Yes, Your Excellency,” Noorden said as an aide opened up a ledger on a pile of boxes. “I must say, this was a difficult task, what with the army moving about and the like.”
“I’m certain you were thorough as always, Noorden,” Elend said. He glanced at the ledger, which seemed to make sense to him, though all Vin saw was a bunch of random numbers.
“What’s it say?” she asked.
“It lists the number of sick and dead,” Elend said. “Of our thirty-eight thousand, nearly six thousand were taken by the sickness. We lost about five hundred and fifty.”
“Including one of my own scribes,” Noorden said, shaking his head.
Vin frowned. Not at the death, at something else, something itching at her mind . . .
“Fewer dead than expected,” Elend said, pulling thoughtfully at his beard.
“Yes, Your Excellency,” Noorden said. “I guess these soldier types are more rugged than the average skaa population. The sickness, whatever it is, didn’t strike them as hard.”
“How do you know?” Vin asked, looking up. “How do you know how many should have died?”
“Previous experience, my lady,” Noorden said in his chatty way. “We’ve been tracking these deaths with some interest. Since the disease is new, we’re trying to determine exactly what causes it. Perhaps that will lead us to a way to treat it. I’ve had my scribes reading what we can, trying to find clues of other diseases like this. It seems a little like the shakewelts, though that’s usually brought on by—”
“Noorden,” Vin said, frowning. “You have figures then? Exact numbers?”
“That’s what His Excellency asked for, my lady.”
“How many fell sick to the disease?” Vin asked. “Exactly?”
“Well, let me see . . .” Noorden said, shooing his scribe away and checking the ledger. “Five thousand two hundred and forty-three.”
“What percentage of the soldiers is that?” Vin asked.
Noorden paused, then waved over a scribe